The WirelessHART communication protocol establishes a wireless communication standard for process applications. More particularly, WirelessHART is a secure, wireless mesh networking communication technology operating in the 2.4 GHz ISM radio band. WirelessHART utilizes IEEE STD 802.15.4-2006 2.4 GHz DSSS transceivers with channel hopping on a transaction by transaction basis. WirelessHART communication is arbitrated using time division multiple access (TDMA) to schedule link activity. All communications are performed within a designated slot and one or more sources and one or more destination devices may be scheduled to communicate in a given slot. Thus, a slot may be dedicated to communication from a single source device or a slot may support shared communication access between multiple devices. The message being propagated by the source device on a slot may be addressed to a specific device or may be broadcast to each of the destination devices assigned to the slot.
To be successful, WirelessHART must support interoperability and allow compliant devices from different manufactures to be mixed in the same network to create an integrated system. The HART Communication Foundation (HCF) has always had a strict definition of interoperability. In particular, HCF defines “interoperability” as the ability for like devices from different manufacturers to work together in a system and be substituted one for another without loss of functionality at the host system level.
To attain compliance, the HCF has developed a quality assurance program to ensure the compliance of WirelessHART products. The objective of the WirelessHART quality assurance program is to ensure product adherence to the high standards of interoperability and compatibility defined by the HCF.
Using the network analyzer or radio capture tools available today, an operator may monitor an individual communication channel by tuning a network analyzer to the radio frequency associated with the channel and attempting to capture data packets transmitted via this communication channel. To monitor another communication channel, the operator needs to either adjust the frequency setting of the network analyzer being used, or use another network analyzer. Thus, to monitor multiple channels at the same time, the operator needs to set up and operate several network analyzers. In addition to the inconvenience, high cost, and stringent calibration requirements associated with using multiple network analyzers at the same time, the operator may also generate undesirable interference in the respective antennas of the network analyzers when placing these devices close to each other.